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8 comments

One of those endgames that is probably hard for some because there is a move that a lot of players might find hard to avoid, specifically 1.b4.

I am sure others will provide the right plan, so I will content myself with the wrong move/s and show why it/they fail/s for white:

1. b4? Kg6!

And, I would hope the problem is already obvious, right? White must capture the a-pawn with the king, but one can just count the moves and tell that black brings his own king into contact with the white pawn in the half move after white brings his king into contact with the black pawn. White will not be able to both capture on the a-file while protecting the b-pawn. Just to make it explicit:

2. Ke7 Kf5!
3. Kd6 Ke4!
4. Kc5 Kd3

And it will do white no good to take the opposition from d5 since the black king is now free to go to c3 and b3. Continuing:

5. Kb6 Kc4
6. Ka5 Kb3=

And playing 1.b3 doesn’t really help since the black king approaches the same way through d3 anyway.

I leave the correct plan to be shown by others, but I would encourage those commenters to deeply consider the entire solution depending on how black replies to white.

1.Kf7!! Kh6 [if 1… Kh8 2. b4 and then K comes to a pawn]
2. Kf6
and so on. So after
7. Kf2 Kh3 (going up again)
8. b4!! Kg4
9 Ke3 andso on… this way it picks the a pawn and promotes its b pawn to queen.

The main problem with Karl’s line 8.b4 is that as the two kings march to the queen side- white by playing Ke3-Kd4-Kc5 etc. and black doing so with Kg4-Kf5-Ke6- is that once the kings reach c5 for white and e6 for black, black can now draw by playing a5 when the white pawn is on b4 at that point- if white takes the pawn on the next move, the black king reaches the corner for a draw, and if white plays b5 instead, black gets a draw by queening the half move after white does if white continues with b6 and b7, and reaches a drawn K+P vs K ending if white takes the time to play Kb4 and Kxa3. White must preserve a waiting move, as Alena demonstrates.